Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Star Trek...I think


Major Spoilers, avert your eyes now!
So my wife and I saw the new Star Trekmovielast night. We're both die-hard fans of the Classic, and she is a die-hard fan of NextGen. We liked the new movie, but we didn't love it. They messed with the time lines too much and I know that by killing Kirk's father they change entire time-lines, but too much was changed.
Kirk's brother Sam; gone. Will never exist.
Spock's mom; gone. Killed while transporting?
Spock and Uhura snogging all over the transporter pad; stupid and meaningless.
Captain Pike placed in a wheelchair; what happened to the Menagerie?
Spock serving with Pike prior to meeting Kirk; wiped from History.
Leonard (The Corpse) Nimoy; please leave him out. WTF?
By introducing more stupid Time Travel storylines (seems to be the only way to write a Star Trek movie lately), Abrams and company open up the door that lets them play in the Star Trek sandbox but not stay within the rules/guidelines. Give me all of the cool flashy stuff, but throw away all the meaningless history and backstory that makes Classic Trek that much more Classic. That seems to be their new haiku.
As for the good stuff? I did like the flash of the movie. The new Warp effect was simple but it worked for me. Casting all around was good. Zach Quinto was made to be Spock and Karl Urban (usually a huge action star) brought us the grumpy McCoy that we've grown to love. Simon Pegg's Scotty was fun but underused. Sulu, Chekov and Uhura were all fine, just not amazing. I was confused by all of the new alien races that were put in front of us as eye candy and I had a hard time understanding why an Orion Slave Girl is now a member of the Star Fleet Academy.

Beam me out of here. Scotty

5 comments:

James Robert Smith said...

Alas! I haven't seen it yet.

Will I wait for the DVD? Maybe...

J said...

I hear a lot of die hard "TREKKIES" saying the same thing. But I think I know why trekkie fans walk out of the theaters unsatisfied....

I read a printed interview J.J. Abrams gave just before the premier, and he said he was never a fan Star Trek while growing up, nor did he ever watch an episode. He went on to say that he didn't just want to do a "Re-make" of an old series. Instead he set out to make his OWN version of Star Trek, much like a singer would take an old classic song and make it their own by slightly changing the melody and/or lyrics.

I'd have to agree with you when you said, "Time Travel story lines seems to be the only way to write a Star Trek movie lately". It's about time that someone else stepped up to make the kind of Star Trek movie that no-one would ever expect. Perhaps a dark and gritty version is long overdue. When I say, "dark & gritty" I'm thinking along the lines of the original ALIEN movie or the HALO video game... No more super clean sterile environment, a lot of swearing, a lot of unnecessary gunfire.

Yeah, I think Trekkie fans would welcome that.

But hey, That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

James Robert Smith said...

I saw it. As I've told everyone else who will listen:

the new STAR TREK sucks on an intergalactic scale. Avoid it.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

For shame. You guys gotta let go of the past. Face it. Most of the past Trek movies were pretty bad. This new update was a warm welcome to an almost dead franchise. I've been a fan of Stark Trek movies and tv for many years. I even have a fondness for the bad movies. This new one was great fun. I was totally able to leave all preconceptions at the door. I thoroughly recommend it to all.